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Russian National Ballet Theater: Sleeping Beauty

Date: Feb 11 - 7:30 pm

Venue: Beijing Poly Theater

Price: 100-1,600 yuan

The Russian National Ballet Theatre was founded with support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. The basic principle of the theatre is to preserve the creative heritage of Russian ballet and to search for new forms in choreography. Its repertoire includes not only classical performances such as Swan Lake, The Nutcracker and Sleeping Beauty, but also modern ballets set to the music of Mozart, Bach, and Ravel. In 2001, Evgeny Amosov became the Artistic Director of the theatre. He was graduated from the Perm Academy of choreography and then joined the Ekaterinburg Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet as a principal dancer. He is also a prize-winner of Russian and International choreography contests of ballet-masters and ballet dancers.

Contact: 400-610-3721

Kristjan Jarvi Conducts Doctor Atomic Symphony & Shostakovich Symphony

Date: Feb 19 - 7:30 pm

Venue: National Center for the Performing Arts

Price: 80-480 yuna

Hailed by New York Times as "a kinetic force on the podium, like Leonard Bernstein reborn", Jarvi has combined his classical roots and affinity for traditional repertoire with an infectious enthusiasm for creating original programs, propelling classical concert halls around the globe into the 21st century. John Adams' opera of Doctor Atomic, with the libretto by Peter Sellars, focuses on the great stress and anxiety experienced by those at Los Alamos while the test of the first atomic bomb was being prepared. In 2007, Adams adapted the opera into the Doctor Atomic Symphony. "Seventh Symphony" is the most realistic one of Shostakovich's symphonies. At first, Shostakovich gave each of the four movements of the work a title, "War", "Memories", "Our Country's Wide Spaces" and "Victory in the Future", respectively. These titles were later removed, but the fact that they had once appeared, implies that the composer had intended to use an epic tone to express his feelings and thoughts about the war. However, the music is never difficult to be understood without these titles, and it is never difficult for the listener to associate it with the heroism that the Soviet Union showed during World War II. While its creation and performance in war time inspired all peace-loving peoples of the world with courage and will to fight with fascism, in times of peace the work reminds us to remember history and cherish peace, and evokes associations with war frenzy and heroism.

Contact: 010-6655-0000